Finished

     Just finished this shekere. I like how the gourds color matches the wood beads. Very natural looking. This gourd ended up having a nice brisk action. It has a very large and wide bottom that is easy to strike with the hand for a booming tone. The crisp sound of the beads contrasts with the deep open tone very well. All in all a great sounding and easy playing instrument. As I said it's going to my friend Oliver, n excellent jazz flautists and all around nice guy.

    I've got plenty more shekeres to make, but I'll try and focus on some differnt sorts of posts in the near future.

One more shekere

    Well I seem to be turning out these instruments at a pretty good rate. This one is close to finished as you can see. This shekere uses wood beads. It is my second wood bead shekere. This one is going to a friend and fellow musician, a saxophone and flute player I play jazz with. He liked the natural look of the wood beads.

   Wood beads have a different sound. I prefer them over the typical plastic pony barrel beads, but I think I prefer the larger round plastic beads I used on my last shekere, in the post just before this.

   Anyways this is turning out to be a nice instrument. Should be completed in the nex day or two. I'm really trying to turn out these shekeres as I kind of want to get all these gourds out of my apartment. 12 big gourds do not really make for the best home decor, if you know what I mean.

Latest Shekere.

 

   Well here it is. Believe it or not I got this instrument done on time for the rumba. It performed very well, and sounded great. I got a lot of compliments on it. I really like its old school look and sound. It has a looser more "gravely" tone than most of the modern shekeres you hear. There are some tracks on Mongo Santamaria's "Afro Roots" CD and the Grupo Afrocuba De Matanzas CD Raices Africanas that have shekeres whose sound I was trying to emulate with this latest instrument of mine.

   This shekere turned out to have a nice response, very good action and was fairly light. I was a little concerned because the gourd was so large and I used some larger size beads that this instrument would be heavy and unwieldy, but such was not the case at all.

  I spent a lot of timing browsing images of shekeres I liked to use as models. First and foremost are the creations of Morty Sanders that you can see at the Fidel's Eyeglasses Blog by his son Mark. There are others from various resources as well. I'm going to post some up here so you can see where I got some of my ideas from.

 

 

  

 

 

   Anyways, this one is done, and this particular shekere is for me, I'm keeping it. I'm going to be using it at the rumbas and sessions that I go to. But I have plenty more to make, I'm still working on the agbe set, that is going to be available for sale, and I have a shekere to make for one of my jazz musician friends that I play congas with. I might have one or two single shekeres that I might sell as well. Still plenty of work to do. Eventually I'm going to have to make one like this guys SUPER funky gourd. Love it!

Shekere Factory

   I've been busy working on this shekere. I went by General Bead here in San Francisco and picked up a whole bunch of nice beads to get my next shekere projects going. This one pictured here is going to be for me to take to rumbas around town. I'm trying out some new techniques on this instrument, which were a little challenging but I've got it under control now. I'm hoping to get it done for the rumba tomorrow at the Radio Havana Social Club. I'm looking forward to seeing how this shekere turns out.

 

Rhythm Transcription Sheets

          Hopefully this works out. I've attached a couple of image files that hopefully my readers can drag to their desktop and print out. What these files are, are sheets that I take to classes and seminars to write down and make a record of what I am learning there. 

                                                                                 

    I've done this for over a year now, conga rhythms and bata. I started off with just the sheets which was very effective, writing down the rhythm's notes, sequence and hand sticking through direct observation of the teacher's demonstration. I now combine this with digital audio recordings I make with my Zoom H2, which is an extremely convenient little device. The two methods, direct observation and the audio recordings, combined with direct experience and memory of playing and hearing the rhythm in class combines to make the most effective and accurate recordings short of video. Many instructors do not permit video recording of classes.

    There are several methods of notation that would be suitable for charts like these. I myself use an adaptation of "The "Stoned" Hand-Drum", which is a very cool method itself adapted from the venerable  Stone-Stick Control for the Snare Drummer.

    

    The 'Stoned" method uses letters and such for the different tones.

     I use a version of this method of letters for the tones of the drums, and I place a letter "R" or "L" for the hand underneath the tone to show the sticking. These methods are similar to tabs for guitar players. Here is an example of one that I have used.

  
    Another method that is very common is to use a row of squares for each hand; dominant hand on top, the other hand on the bottom. Both methods have their advantages. I prefer it written in one row, as I feel it's easier to vocalize the rhythm in one line, the letters end up forming a kind of sentence that I can pronounce. 


   Writing rhythms for hand drums in  standard music notation has one big problem, mainly how to represent the different strokes and the sticking, there has not been a standardized way to represent that in music notation. I often wonder why the different strokes can't be represented on the different lines of the staff, like for a piano. Usually a whole series of little symbols are used, which are always clumsy and differ from book to book. I think you could use a treble clef to represent the higher drums and the bass clef for the lower drum. The note lines would represent the tones, G for slap, E for open tone, B for bass, etc, etc. The sticking would still need to be addressed.

     Anyways, it's a debate that is going to go on for a long time: how to transcribe rhythms for hand drums. Hopefully you'll find these little sheets useful, they work well for me. The best way to transcribe them is whatever way works for you best. Of course there is the whole discussion about whether or not rumba and folkloric music which was originally passed down orally can be accurately represented on paper at all, but that's a whole different subject for another post.

Caxixi.com - Cabello Organic Percussion

 

 (from caxixi.com -Cabello Organic Percussion)

   A little while ago I wrote a post on erikundi , which are little shakers made kind of like little baskets. I know of them mainly for their use in the Afro-Cuban Abakua rhythm, but in Brasil they are called Caxixi, I'm familiar with them being played with the Berimbau, the instrument famous for accompanying Capoeira.

(from caxixi.com -Cabello Organic Percussion)

Wikipedia has this to say about caxixi and erikundi:

A caxixi is a percussion instrument consisting of a closed basket with a flat-bottom filled with seeds or other small particles. The caxixi is an indirectly struck idiophone. Like the maraca, it is sounded by shaking. It is found across Africa and South America, but mainly in Brazil. Natives believed the caxixi to summon good enchanted spirits and to ward off evil ones.

In Capoeira music, the caxixi is played along with the berimbau. In West Africa it is used by singers and often alongside drummers.

An erikundi is a kind of basket woven maraca, a percussion instrument. It is of African origins.

 Anyways, why the double post? My friends over at Sentimiento Manana posted this great picture from the percussionist Gene Golden, showing the variety and quality of his instruments. He has some fantastic stuff, including some incredible erikundis (caxixi).

(from http://sentimientomanana.blogspot.com)

  So I did a little browsing and came across a beautiful site called caxixi.com which belongs to Cabello Organic Percussion. Imagine that! A whole website named after this humble little instrument! I'm very impressed. That is just the thing I like to see. I wanted to put the word out there for any Afro-Cuban folkloric players that can't go to a flea market and buy erikundis from Ghanaians like I was lucky enough to. Cabello Organic Percussion not only seems to make fantastic and quality caxixi, they seem to have that secret ingredient: passion! I'm sure it won't be long before I have some of their instruments. They are so beautiful.

(from caxixi.com -Cabello Organic Percussion)

All done.

   Well this little guy is done now. Two more to go. This shekere ended up having a nice tight responsive action with a crisp sound, but not too loud. That's perfect for a cachimbo for guiro, even for rumba, but I don't think this gourd quite has the presence for rumba. In a guiro this size shekere basically keeps the time, playing the pick-up just before the downbeat and the downbeat and . Ki-la, ki-la, ki-la: just like the cachimbo for bembe or the okonkolo often do.

  I've heard this particular size go by a couple of names. Cachimbo is one, okonkolo like the bata drum is another, and I've even heard it mentioned as an "uno" (one), I assume because it's the smallest, or first shekere somehow?

  Cachimbo and okonkolo are obvious names as a 3 shekere agbe (or agwe) set plays guiro. From what I understand a guiro is similar to a bembe with drums and a toque with bata; the guiro uses primarily shekeres. From what I have seen and heard the songs for the orishas are sung at each. Just to be clear, I'm not a santero, though I know several. I enjoy the music and I enjoy educating myself on it's backgrounds and traditions.

  So this little guy is done and now onto the other two. It's always a pleasure to finish one of these instruments as one is never quite sure how it is going to come together in the end; the sound, the action the appearance.

Shekere Project

 

    This little shekere is turning out very well and progressing quickly. It is going to be the cachimbo, or okonkolo to an 3 shekere agbe set for guiro I am making. The tones of the gourds I am using for this set match so well it is unbelievable. It's like the intervals were tuned. I think the set is going to turn out very nicely. There is a good chance I'll be selling that set to bankroll the other 9 gourds waiting to be made into shekeres I have lying around.

 

    So why am I thinking of letting this set go if it has such great potential? Well, I'm kind of an oddball in the fact that I prefer my shekeres on the large side, larger than usual, big actually. This set is a little more regular and manageable in size for the typical player. One never knows, I may end up changing my mind and keep this set, if it sounds as good as I think it will. But I've got to let go of most of these, the last thing I need is 12 shekeres cluttering up my little San Francisco apartment. Could you imagine the noise I would make as I bump into these things while trying to eat my breakfast?

Quinto or Requinto???

   The little drum in rumba is the quinto. It is the highest pitched drum for rhythms like Guaguanco , Rumba Columbia, Guarapachangeo and Yambu. For  Guaguanco , Rumba Columbia and Yambu it is the main improvising drum, responding to the dancers movements, the singer and the other drums. Frequently during the montuno of a song the lead singer may cry "Quinto!!!", which is a signal for the coro to stop and for the quinto player to really let loose and play a solo. Guarapachangeo is kind of a different story with all the cajons and multiple drums being played sometimes.

   There can be some confusion regarding this drum, mainly in the terms quinto and requinto. When we look at big manufacturers like LP we see the quinto and the requinto in their catalogs. However when we look at this album by Grupo Afro-Cubano and look at the quinto player, we see what Lp would call a requinto. To Grupo Afro-Cubano it is the quinto, and they credit Giraldo Rodrigues with playing it.

 

   LP is mainly referring to the requinto as a size of drum, their smallest. While in rumba the names for the drums mainly refer to their role or position in the ensemble. I've also heard the quinto referred to as "a fifth", assuming the fifth drum. I don't know how accurate that really is, but if you have claves, palito, tres dos, salidor then quinto, that makes five. Also quintet means five, thus quinto???

 

   So why requinto? I'm assuming LP adopted the name for size purposes again. An LP quinto is not really different enough in size from the conga and tumba be an authentic sounding quinto for rumba. You need something smaller, with a different shape to sound like that. Listen to an old Los Munequitos album and hear how high pitched the quinto is. Look at the examples in this blog and see how small the "quintos" are. 

From Wikipedia: 

The term requinto is used in both Spanish and Portuguese to mean a smaller, higher-pitched version of another instrument. Thus, there are requinto guitars, drums and other instruments.

     It doesn't look like Jesus Alfonso needs a smaller version of his quinto here does it?  An 11" LP quinto just isn't going to compare with Jesus's drum there, so they've got to have a requinto. We also have Nolan Warden saying:

The words quinto, conga, and tumbadora are now used as a practicality among performers and retailers to indicate size. Quinto, the smaller drum, traditionally refers to the lead part in rumba......

Some manufacturers now produce requintos (extra small) and/or supertumbas (largest). It should not be inferred, however, that drums with these names were ever used together in a traditional ensemble. ~(Warden pg.2)

    You never see Jesus Alfonso Mira credited with playing the "requinto", he plays quinto, he is a quintocero. You also never hear the gallo call out "requinto!" when he wants to hear the solo, it's always "quinto!". As Nolan Warden says, you really don't hear the word requinto used referring to a traditional rumba ensemble at all, unless your referring to drums that have been sized along the newer LP "standards". This old Gon Bops ad doesn't use the word requinto, even though their "Super Quinto" size is what we might think of as requinto nowadays. Actually super is the name of the line, along with the Voodoo, and International lines, which also feature the 9 3/4" size. What's even more confusing is the new DW Gon Bops feature a "super quinto" as well, but it is a size in their California series, it's a smaller quinto, what others call a requinto, however DW Gon Bops call it a super quinto, perhaps in reference to the older Gon Bops.

   The only rhythm that I have actually learned that calls for a drum part with the name of requinto is a Comparsa taught to me by Sandy Perez. In that rhythm the quinto is still the main improvising drum with the highest pitch, and the requinto drum plays a repeating rhythm and is described as being the 3rd highest pitched drum.

   I've also heard that the music Plena from Puerto Rico uses a drum called a requinto.  However I know so little about that music, that all I am going to do is mention it and post this little image I found describing what a requinto is in Plena. I assume it's accurate. There is also this from Wikipedia. 

The requinto drum is used in the Puerto Rican folk genre plena, wherein it is a small conical hand drum that improvises over the other drum rhythms.

    I myself have 3 quintos, or  2 small quintos or "requintos", and a quinto. My largest quinto is by Resolution drums and is 10 1/2". I use this drum as a cachimbo for folkloric rhythms like Bembe, Palo, Makuta, etc. It is a fantastic little drum, but it is not quite the right size to get that high, high pitch that your really want for an authentic sounding rumba. I mean, I can and I have used it for rumba, and it works fine, but I was after a different sound. In folkloric rhythms it works great, because in that music the cachimbo, or high drum typically plays a recurring rhythm that forms a melody with the other drums. The larger size makes a pitch that is closer to the middle and low drums and makes the rhythm more melodious. In most folkloric rhythms the low drum is the improvisor. In contrast, a rumba quinto is so high pitched it occupies it's own realm in the music, along with the other drums and the voices.

   The other two quintos (requintos) are 9 3/4" by Isla Percussions and a 9 3/4" California series Gon Bops. They both have the high, high sound you can hear in rumba recordings from Cuba.

   I'm assuming the LP sized quinto is intended for a Salsa or Latin Jazz 3 drum set up, as it's range would be more compatible with a conga and tumba. However, many of the guys I play with use that size as part of their rumba set and that is perfectly fine and acceptable.

  Then there's the Guarapachangeo. It's not unusual to see the quinto player for that rhythm to be playing a quinto cajon between his knees, a quinto to his right and then requinto or smaller quinto to the right of that. Not only that, but it's entirely possible for the quinto player to be playing very conservatively while the big bass cajon's are going off all over the place.

  So what can I say? Confusing isn't it? A quinto really isn't a quinto, a requinto is a quinto, unless of course you have a quinto and a requinto, but then you have a quinto and a smaller quinto. Oh, and a fifth isn't a bottle, it's a drum.

Radio Havana Rumba

    This is the rumba I go to regularly. If you happen to be in town come check it out.  Yesterday I provided the drums for the first time. Everyone had compliments on them, which was great to hear. I had built this set specifically for ocassions like these. Like I tell my friends, I have drums that travel and some that stay at home. These are the ones that travel to rowdy rumbas, park practices and conga classes. Isla, Gon Bops and Valje.

   So if you're around one Sunday, come on by and take a turn on a drum or sing a rumba with us.